The Crying Game (1992) Written and directed by Neil Jordan Stephen Rea as Fergus and Forest Whitaker as Jody. Jody: In Antigua, cricket’s the black man’s game. Kids play it from the age of two. My dad had me throwing googlies from the age of five. Then we moved to Tottenham and it was something (read…)

Diner (1982) Written and directed by Barry Levinson Ellen Barkin as Beth Screiber and Daniel Stern as Laurence ‘Shrevie’ Schreiber Shrevie: I found my James Brown record filed under the J’s instead of the B’s. I don’t know who taught you to alphabetize, but to top it off, he’s in the rock and roll section (read…)

I recently sat down to a couple of one on one interviews for the upcoming adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. The first was with the film’s co-star Garrett Hedlund (Tron: Legacy) and the second was with screenwriter Jose Rivera and director Walter Salles who had previously collaborated on the highly acclaimed The Motorcycle (read…)

I admit it, the love for Silver Linings is a complete head scratcher to me. Not that it’s a bad movie. It’s fine. It’s good. It’s enjoyable. It’s just… I don’t know. Anyway, good for Moonrise Kingdom. Good for Beasts of the Southern Wild and Bernie. Good for Middle of Nowhere and Starlet. BEST FEATURE: Beasts of the Southern Wild, Bernie, Keep the Lights On, Moonrise Kingdom, Silver Linings Playbook

Oscar Podcast Episode 9 has been unleashed upon the world for your gratification. Once again I join Awards Daily team Sasha Stone and Ryan Adams and we share our enthusiasm for Ang Lee’s beautiful and moving Life of Pi, Kathryn Bigelow’s fantastic hunt for Bin Laden thriller Zero Dark Thirty. Somewhere in between we sit (read…)

Near Dark (1987) Directed and co-written by Kathryn Bigelow Jenny Wright as Mae and Adrian Pasdar as Caleb Colton Caleb: I sure haven’t met any girls like you. Mae: No, you haven’t met any girls like me. Look up. Caleb: Stars. Mae: See that one? Caleb: First one I laid my eyes on. Mae: The (read…)

The Two Jakes (1990) Screenplay by Robert Towne. Directed by Jack Nicholson Jack Nicholson as J.J. “Jake” Gittes Gittes: Chuck, what I do for a living may not be very reputable, but I am. In this town, I’m the leper with the most fingers.

This week’s Watercooler Musical Interlude is Roy Budd’s moody/minimalist jazz theme from Mike Hodges’ Get Carter. There’s a lot going on moviewise both in theaters and behind the scenes in critics’ screenings. For the former, I caught up with Ang Lee’s wonderful Life of Pi which I pretty much loved. Still putting my thoughts together (read…)

The Great Waldo Pepper (1975) Directed by George Roy Hill. Co-written by George Roy Hill and William Goldman Bo Brundin as Ernst Kessler and Robert Redford as Waldo Pepper. Kessler: Everything was in order. The world made total sense. We battled. No lasting advantage. He was brighter. I was smarter. He was faster, and I (read…)

The Ice Storm (1997) Directed by Ang Lee Christina Ricci as Wendy Hood, Joan Allen as Elena Hood, Tobey Maguire as Paul Hood and Kevin Kline as Ben Hood Ben: Well, it’s great that we can all be together. And this Thanksgiving, no, uh, yelling, no hysteria… especially with your grandpa not here… although we (read…)

Being John Malkovich (1999) Written by Charlie Kaufman. Directed by Spike Jonze Catherine Keener as Maxine Lund and John Cusack as Craig Schwartz (not pictured) Maxine: So, tell me about yourself. Huh? I mean, if you can get your mind out of the gutter long enough, dog boy. Craig: Well, I’m a puppeteer and I’ve (read…)

The Seven Year Itch (1955) Directed by Billy Wilder Marilyn Monroe as The Girl and Tom Ewell as Richard Sherman (not pictured) The Girl: Let me just go put something on. I’ll go into the kitchen and get dressed. Richard: The kitchen? The Girl: Yes, when it’s hot like this, you know what I do? (read…)

Episode 8 of Oscar Podcast where I once again join Ryan Adams and Sasha Stone of Awards Daily to shoot the Oscar doo doo. This week we dig into Lincoln and Silver Linings Playbook and then we take a stab at early predictions of the NBR and the NY and LA film critics.

This week’s Watercooler Musical Interlude is a suite drawn from John Williams’ score for Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln because… because Lincoln, bitches! There’s a certain loudmouth movie blogger who is on a mission to “take down” Lincoln in favor of Silver Linings Playbook because he likes Jennifer Lawrence’s tits and ass better than he likes Spielberg. (read…)

Flirting with Disaster (1996) Written and Directed by David O. Russell Mary Tyler Moore as Pearl Coplin and Patricia Arquette as Nancy Coplin (not pictured) Nancy: You can’t smoke around the baby. Pearl: Show a little compassion, will you?

The King of Comedy (1983) directed by Martin Scorsese Robert De Niro as Rupert Pupkin and Jerry Lewis as Jerry Langford. Jerry: Do you understand English? Take your things and go! Rupert: All right, all right, I can take a hint, Jerry. I just want to ask you to listen to my stuff for fifteen (read…)

Strangers on a Train (1951) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock Farley Granger as Guy Haines, Robert Walker as Bruno Antony and Howard Washington as the Waiter on Train (not picture) Bruno: Ask me anything. I got the answers. Even news about people I don’t know. Like, uh… who would like to marry whom… when his wife (read…)

The Pianist (2002) Directed by Roman Polanski Adrien Brody as Wladyslaw Szpilman, Paul Bradley as Yehuda and Daniel Caltagirone as Majorek Yehuda: You know how many copies we print of our newspaper? Five hundred. You know how many people on average read one copy? Twenty. That makes ten thousand readers. These will start the uprising. (read…)

Sabrina (1954) Directed by Billy Wilder William Holden as David Larrabee and Audrey Hepburn as Sabrina Fairchild David: Oh, Sabrina, Sabrina. Where have you been all my life? Sabrina: Right over the garage.

The Watercooler Musical Interlude celebrates Veteran’s Day with Maurice Jarre’s theme from The Longest Day. This is Jarre’s second appearance in the Watercooler following Lawrence of Arabia back in June. As a WWII nerd when I was a kid, The Longest Day was always one of my favorite movies. In retrospect, it’s pretty bloated and (read…)

Insomnia (2002) Directed by Christopher Nolan Robin Williams as Walter Finch and Al Pacino as Will Dormer. Finch: When I heard they had brought somebody from LA, I panicked. I wasn’t worried about the locals. I knew they would connect me to Kay eventually, but I could handle them. They never look in the eyes (read…)

Broken Flowers (2004) Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch Bill Murray as Don Johnston and Francis Conroy as Dora (not pictured) Don: I like those pearls. Did I give you those? Dora: I don’t think so. Don: I should have.